The past, present and future …

KENDALL FIELDS

KENDALL FIELDS | May 2, 2014

Warm spring air wafts into the foyer of a West Napa Street house. Sun shines through a large window and circular skylights, reflecting off mirrors hung on sage-colored walls. Hunks of amethyst refract a rainbow onto a wall placard that reads: relax.

A small-framed woman with soft brown eyes and a warm smile stands to greet her visitor. She motions to a room with pocket doors and guides her visitor to a white table. A crystal ball is perched atop the table, flanked by two decks of tarot cards.

There is no show, no flash, as April Elizabeth Adams begins to shuffle tarot cards. “Let’s see what’s going on,” she says, calmly.

For 20 years, Adams has been sharing her psychic abilities with clients to help them make sense of their lives. Three months ago, Adams, her husband and their two sons moved to Sonoma from Los Angeles and opened Sonoma Psychic out of their home.

The Arizona native remembers going to Sedona, a mystic haven, and being fascinated by the natural beauty and culture. But she says her ability to detect “energies,” and even spirits of the deceased, around people started when Adams was just 5 years old. She remembers walking down the street and feeling the energy of people passing by. “It was sometimes scary for me because some energy was good and some was bad,” Adams recalls, explaining how she had to make sense of it all.

Luckily for Adams, being a psychic wasn’t foreign to her family. Adams’ mother is also a psychic and two of Adams’ three younger siblings also have the ability. Adams’ mother, who now lives and practices in Texas, worked as a psychic while Adams was growing up and helped her daughter develop her skills and learn how to use things such as tarot cards along with her ability.

When Adams was a teenager, she would read her friends’ palms. She remembers confronting skeptics or being teased for being a psychic. “As a kid, it was really hard,” Adams says. “Today I have had friends call me and tell me things I told them in the past are coming true.”

At Sonoma Psychic, Adams reads palms, which tell her about a person’s basic personality. She is quick to point out that while anybody can study palmistry, a person without a psychic ability can’t detect the energy during a palm reading.

In tarot card readings, Adams uses the cards – the Rider-Waite deck is her favorite for accuracy – to pick up energies of what’s going on currently in a person’s life. She also has an aura imaging system that takes photos of the energy surrounding a person and can tell her more about them. But the most detailed, she explains, are psychic readings, during which Adams focuses in on a person to learn about their past, present and future. She says everything she sees comes in “clips” of that person’s life.

Prices for a session with Adams vary by type. Palm readings are $25, tarot readings are $45 and psychic readings are $65. Aura imaging, which requires use of a specialized system is $85. Adams also offers a meditation guidance session for $125. Readings can take anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour, depending on the person.

“I tell my clients to let me know beforehand if there is anything that they don’t want me to talk about and then I leave that out,” Adams says. “There are some people who don’t want to know about certain things, others don’t mind.”

Adams has also grown used to skeptics, dealing with them patiently and telling them what she can pick up from the energy around them and going from there. “I’m here to help people if they want it. … A lot of people are skeptical, a lot of people don’t want to know.”

Having psychic abilities does have its drawbacks, Adams says, but she wouldn’t change who she is. “I never had a time where I didn’t wish I had this ability.”

Adams avoids large crowds where, with so many people and all of their energies, she feels a sort of sensory overload. All of the focusing and constant surround of energy, she says, can cause headaches.

To help her focus better and promote the calm she thrives on, Adams surrounds herself with protective crystals – amethyst and quartz are her favorites. She explains how psychics are especially vulnerable to negative energy, which can cause them harm, because of their ability to feel it more. “I surround myself and people I love and care about with crystals,” Adams says, pointing at the crystals in her office and home. “I try to make this place have a calming vibe,” Adams says. “I want people to come here and feel safe and relaxed.”

Adams says being a psychic is the greatest gift because it enables her to help people. “It’s up to the person,” she says, “I’m here if you want to know. To give guidance and offer insight,” she explains. “It gives me joy and happiness making people feel better.”

On the way out, Adams hands her visitor a blue crystal and says, “To protect you.”

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More information about Adams and her psychic business can be found at sonomapsychic.com or by calling Adams at 938-0888. Sonoma Psychic is located at 545 W. Napa St., Sonoma.